The purchase of cable television time for advertisers is extremely expensive. As a result, it is has always been desirous to obtain good reliable statistics about who is watching "what" and when they are watching "it". To obtain such information, it is necessary to construct a system/method that is capable of identifying cable media once transmitted, determining which channel consumers are tuned to and then generating useful data from such information. Examples of past and current systems/methods, or portions thereof, directed towards this objective are listed below.
Media encoding systems and processes are known in the art, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,851 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,488 (Leventer et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,804 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,304 (Watanabe et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,779 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,974 (Butler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,020 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,871 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,412 (Kramer et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,273 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,916 (Pshtissky et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,479 (Mary); U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,453 (copriviza et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,127 (Dinsel); U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,237 (Gerdes, et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,240 (Hori); U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,941 (Montgomery et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,100 (Thomas et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,122 (Keene); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,026 (Lu et al.).
Systems or methods for determining to which frequency a television is tuned are known in the art, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,206 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,562 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,578 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,958 (Machnik et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,209 (Kiewit et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,302 (Fulmer et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,808 (Solar) U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,736 (Kiewit); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,503 (Zurlinden).
Systems or methods for identifying and verifying broadcasted programs are known in the art, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,531 (Kenyon et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,917 (Kohler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,804 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,304 (Watanabe et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,779 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,974 (Butler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,466 (Lert, Jr. et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,398 (Thomas et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,020 (Greenberg); U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,871 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,412 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,273 (Greenberg); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,934 (Lu et al.).
Systems or methods for determining television audience behavior are known, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,833,859 (Rahmel et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,479 (Moon et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,851 (Haselwood et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,990 (Lert, Jr. et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,245 (Matsumoto et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,531 (Kenyon et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,917 (Kohler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,466 (Lert, Jr. et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,871 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,412 (Kramer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,398 (Thomas et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,974 (Butler et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,963 (Waechter et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,822 (Bronfin et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,423 (DeJean et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,100 (Thomas et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,122 (Keene); U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,159 (Faust et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,182 (Cathey et al.).
However, many of the cable systems/methods only poll a plurality of consumer set top boxes, i.e., these systems/methods ask "what is everyone doing at this moment?" Thus, none of these references teach or suggest a system or method for continuously monitoring every consumer set top box in near-real time using existing cable television infrastructure and providing for the aggregation, collection and dissemination of relevant information for near-real time publication.